Zooms collapse

[andremichel]

 

My zooms have been experiencing a rapid collapse since October for no clear reason. This morning they hit a multi year low of 28 for rolling month (yesterday 0 zooms from 568 views).

 

3 month numbers:

 

October 2018: 97

November 2018: 53

December 2018: 31

 

This can't be down to just random chance.  

 

Is it just me or is everyone experiencing something similar? 

 

If you care to share what are you numbers? 

Edited January 4, 2019 by andremichel

[wiskerke]

Oct 2015 - 64
Nov 2015 - 62
Dec 2015 - 85

 

Oct 2016 - 87
Nov 2016 - 93
Dec 2016 - 58

 

Oct 2017 - 63
Nov 2017 - 79
Dec 2017 - 43

 

Jan 2018 - 65
Feb 2018 - 68
Mar 2018 - 116
Apr 2018 - 60
May 2018 - 71

Jun 2018 - 72
Jul 2018 - 44
Aug 2018 - 42
Sep 2018 - 46
Oct 2018 - 67
Nov 2018 - 56
Dec 2018 - 34   

 

wim

[marc]

Yes, complete collapse in the last month to the extent that my CTR is now stuck on 0 and I have no zooms at all this month at all and barely anything in December.   For the last four years my CTR has been above Alamy average so something has changed.   I have little confidence in the Alamy's tinkering with their ranking system as it does little to reward regular contributors as far as I  can see. You would assume that unless there was a radical change in a portfolio content (or in buyers) the last four years should be a good way of indicating the strength of an individual portfolio.  

Edited January 4, 2019 by marc

[spacecadet]

42 minutes ago, marc said:

 my CTR is now stuck on 0 and I have no zooms at all this month

CTR starts from zero each month, so it would be.

[CandyAppleRed Images]

My 2018 zooms were 10 below 2017 with many 1,000s more views and only one additional sale.

[marc]

26 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

CTR starts from zero each month, so it would be.

Actually I have 7 zooms remaining from last month, so after 4 working days it should have shifted from zero if it takes an average over the last month. 

Edited January 4, 2019 by marc

[Doc]

Jan 2018 :  230

Feb . :          239

Mar:            205

Apr              257

May             260

Jun              254

July             253

Aug             189

Sep             171

Oct              291

Nov             256

Dec             150

 

For me there was a marked drop in zoom numbers and CTR which started on 1st August and finished on 1st October, to the day. Decembers numbers are fairly consistent with previous Decembers in the past few years, but Oct/Nov were back to normal.

 

I think these changes are due to Alamy-tinkerings and the bigger the collection, the more consistently the changes will be noticed. 

 

Like others I dont have any faith in the tinkerings that go on behind the scenes and agree that they are not favouring consistent sellers/uploaders - in fact that may be a deliberate ploy on Alamy's part to spread the income amongst more contributors and get less visible images seen.

 

AndreMichel - can you post zoom numbers for the rest of 2018, as a low December is not unusual?

 

Kumar

 

 

[John Richmond]

Zooms and views Jan - Dec 2018

 

Jan  58    6463
Feb  43    5310
Mar  56    5551
Apr   59    5115
May  75    6082
Jun   60    5684
Jul    66    6473
Aug   53    6996
Sep   63    6560
Oct    83    7659
Nov   76    6720
Dec    62    4651

 

Lots of fluctuation around an average of 62 zooms per month but no long term dips that I can see
 

Edited January 4, 2019 by John Richmond

[spacecadet]

29 minutes ago, marc said:

 if it takes an average over the last month. 

 

It doesn't.

[wiskerke]

14 minutes ago, John Richmond said:

Jan-18	58	6463
Feb-18	43	5310
Mar-18	56	5551
Apr-18	59	5115
May-18	75	6082
Jun-18	60	5684
Jul-18	66	6473
Aug-18	53	6996
Sep-18	63	6560
Oct-18	83	7659
Nov-18	76	6720
Dec-18	62	4651

 

Do we read that as: Jan 2018 - 58 zooms - 6463 views ?

 

wim

[Starsphinx]

I have still not had one single zoom - but have made 2 sales.  I have split my port into 2 pseudos to try and make sure my best stuff appears as high as possible on searches.  Lots of the searches my stuff appears on get zero zooms for the whole search.
Considering how important CTR is supposed to be, and how it forms part of ranking etc I am starting to get concerned about it - people have said on here that not all customers zooms count towards the CTR but that makes little sense to me.
I would certainly be reassured if I could pick up just a couple of zooms - the sales were tiny figures and I am worried my images are going to drop to the bottom.

[John Richmond]

1 minute ago, wiskerke said:

 

Do we read that as: Jan 2018 - 58 zooms - 6463 views ?

 

wim

Corrected in original, Wim.  Don't paste straight from Excel!

[wiskerke]

Just now, John Richmond said:

Corrected in original, Wim.  Don't paste straight from Excel!

 

Yes I have tried to paste just using fixed width type and even that didn't work.

Nor seems there to be an option to format a text using fixed width.

 

wim

[Jon Lewis]

Hi All

 

Got 83 Zooms last year .

 

Jon

[andremichel]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

 

AndreMichel - can you post zoom numbers for the rest of 2018, as a low December is not unusual?

 

Kumar

 

 

 

For 2018

                       Zooms         No of submissions/images

 

January:          75               34       340                       

February:        67                8        125

March:            75                 37     432

April:               60                 10     73

May:               51.                  0      0

June:              58                   0      0

July:               46                   0      0

August:          63                   0      0

September:   50                   0       0

October:        97                   12     86

November:    53                   18    125

December:    31                   13    115

 

I don't have stats for 2017 (though I know I did hit the 90s in previous years and haven't hit 30s since the early days of submitting). I guess December tends to be weak, but never been quite this bad previously. 

 

I included my submission stats but can't see a pattern between them and zooms, apart from maybe a temporary spurt in zooms that occurred when I went from submitting nothing to submitting good numbers  again as in October. 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by andremichel

[Jon Lewis]

Hi All

 

83 Zooms last year here

 

 

Jon

[regen]

Are they really worth bothering about? Alamy tinker with the system (according to the forum) but the individual has no control over this! Only certain customers zooms (as dictated by alamy) are recorded. Another half baked alamy idea designed to baffle and keep your mind off the important thinks like low prices,lousy licensing terms and poor increase in sales levels not to mention the commission reduction! The important things are surely your position in a search and the number of sales not some fanciful stats made less relevant when the thumbnail size was increased. 

 

Regen

[andremichel]

8 minutes ago, regen said:

Are they really worth bothering about? 

 

Regen

 

Because there is such a huge delay between submitting images and getting sales from them, zooms were supposed to give us feedback on how we are doing in advance. But they don't appear to be that reliable. 

[Starsphinx]

14 minutes ago, regen said:

Are they really worth bothering about? Alamy tinker with the system (according to the forum) but the individual has no control over this! Only certain customers zooms (as dictated by alamy) are recorded. Another half baked alamy idea designed to baffle and keep your mind off the important thinks like low prices,lousy licensing terms and poor increase in sales levels not to mention the commission reduction! The important things are surely your position in a search and the number of sales not some fanciful stats made less relevant when the thumbnail size was increased. 

 

Regen

I thought that when I got sales without ever having a zoom - and was told the zooms are essential for the CTR figure which is important in setting image ranking and that if you never have any zooms and so your CTR is 0 (like mine) then your images will drop right down the search and so never be seen.  I would like to think zooms are not important - but CTR apparently is.  However, I would like more clarity on exactly how which zooms are assessed is decided, and how important CTR is.

[Keith Douglas]

1 hour ago, Starsphinx said:

I thought that when I got sales without ever having a zoom - and was told the zooms are essential for the CTR figure which is important in setting image ranking and that if you never have any zooms and so your CTR is 0 (like mine) then your images will drop right down the search and so never be seen.  I would like to think zooms are not important - but CTR apparently is.  However, I would like more clarity on exactly how which zooms are assessed is decided, and how important CTR is.

Alamy aren't going to divulge exactly how their search algorithms work from a contributors perspective. Their priority, anyway, should be to refine their algorithms to give the customer the 'best' selection of images that meet the customer's search query.

I suppose it's inevitable that contributors want to know the shortcut to getting their images  at the top of the search list and zoomed by the customers. I don't think there is any secret key to it though. It's just a long term, steady process to have:

• Unique images, accurately captioned and keyworded that will get you on the first page of search results.
• A history of regular sales that will get your images on the first page of search results where many images match the customers search criteria.
• Strong and/or unique images that are accurately captioned and keyworded to get you zooms.

 

[Starsphinx]

2 minutes ago, Keith Douglas said:

Alamy aren't going to divulge exactly how their search algorithms work from a contributors perspective. Their priority, anyway, should be to refine their algorithms to give the customer the 'best' selection of images that meet the customer's search query.

I suppose it's inevitable that contributors want to know the shortcut to getting their images  at the top of the search list and zoomed by the customers. I don't think there is any secret key to it though. It's just a long term, steady process to have:

• Unique images, accurately captioned and keyworded that will get you on the first page of search results.
• A history of regular sales that will get your images on the first page of search results where many images match the customers search criteria.
• Strong and/or unique images that are accurately captioned and keyworded to get you zooms.

 

I have unique images - some have been a real pain to keyword because of my penchant for taking photos of things when I don't know what they are.   No not all my images are unique.  Yes, some are popular subjects.
I try to do my best with keywording - I may be missing a bit but not a lot and I see thousands of images way worse than mine for keywording (I know this because I check out competition images when keywording)
I am not interested in a shortcut to get my images to the top of search results - I am interested in making sure they do not drop to the bottom of search results because of some process I could know more about to understand how it works.  Like why not all zooms count. 
Have a look at my port - tell me if there is anything grossly wrong I am doing - or why I am not getting zooms.
 

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, regen said:

Are they really worth bothering about? Alamy tinker with the system (according to the forum) but the individual has no control over this! Only certain customers zooms (as dictated by alamy) are recorded. Another half baked alamy idea designed to baffle and keep your mind off the important thinks like low prices,lousy licensing terms and poor increase in sales levels not to mention the commission reduction! The important things are surely your position in a search and the number of sales not some fanciful stats made less relevant when the thumbnail size was increased. 

 

Regen

 

I find it useful to see which of my images are zoomed. I think I can learn something about what people are looking for. I also pay attention to the search terms they use and sometimes realize I haven't added that term to some images that should have it. You haven't added any images here for a very long time and yet you contribute a lot to the forum. Not saying that is wrong, just rather puzzling. Do you think your contributions will result in changes you want to see? Do you think you might start uploading here again? Just curious. Hope I'm not being too nosy.

 

Paulette

[John Mitchell]

 

No collapse here, but zooms did spike in October, and then November and December were slightly below average for zooms. Typical seasonal variations in my case, I'd say.

[Keith Douglas]

1 hour ago, Starsphinx said:

I have unique images - some have been a real pain to keyword because of my penchant for taking photos of things when I don't know what they are.   No not all my images are unique.  Yes, some are popular subjects.
I try to do my best with keywording - I may be missing a bit but not a lot and I see thousands of images way worse than mine for keywording (I know this because I check out competition images when keywording)
I am not interested in a shortcut to get my images to the top of search results - I am interested in making sure they do not drop to the bottom of search results because of some process I could know more about to understand how it works.  Like why not all zooms count. 
Have a look at my port - tell me if there is anything grossly wrong I am doing - or why I am not getting zooms.
 

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, but the competition is high!

 

Take your shots of Barclays Bank in Bath. Search for Barclays Bank Bath. 7 images of which yours are 4 and 6. If you are a customer wanting an image of Barclays Bank in Bath to illustrate an article which ones are you going to zoom? If you want an image of people protesting against Barclays in Bath then the 6th image might fit the bill but the small image just doesn't say 'Protest' to me. 

Six months is not a long time to begin to see results, particularly with just 413 images. It was over 1 year before I saw my first sale, so you are way ahead. 

I just don't think there is any more to know about the search process that you could take action on.

[Starsphinx]

3 minutes ago, Keith Douglas said:

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, but the competition is high!

 

Take your shots of Barclays Bank in Bath. Search for Barclays Bank Bath. 7 images of which yours are 4 and 6. If you are a customer wanting an image of Barclays Bank in Bath to illustrate an article which ones are you going to zoom? If you want an image of people protesting against Barclays in Bath then the 6th image might fit the bill but the small image just doesn't say 'Protest' to me. 

Six months is not a long time to begin to see results, particularly with just 413 images. It was over 1 year before I saw my first sale, so you are way ahead. 

I just don't think there is any more to know about the search process that you could take action on.

Lol - oh yes the protest.
Confession time - I am not remotely comfortable with street photography although I am deliberately working on it.  That Barclays with the protesters was probably the first time I went out forcing myself to shoot street scenes.  I did not spot or notice the protest while I was out and only picked it up in processing - and you could not kick me harder than I kicked myself for missing it.

I am spotting a fair number of areas uncovered or only lightly covered - however, there is a concern with that in that to an extent where a subject has not been covered it is not in demand either.  A classic of that would be P1Y1D.  Now if I am even close on species (and I did a lot of research) that is the only photo of a whole family of parasitic wasps on here (and there are none on a certain place initials SS).  Problem with unique photos of obscure insects is there are not a lot of people looking for them.  Still, if you know any entomologists send them to my photo lol.

I will keep working and learning and challenging my comfort zones - and will take any advice and criticism I can get.